This disclosure relates to juice extraction device for extracting juice from food, particularly those operate at about 40-300 rounds per minute, or so called “slow juicers”, more particularly so called “vertical masticating juicers”.
A juice extraction device is a kind of home appliance for extracting juice from food, such as fruits, herbs, leafy greens, vegetables and the like. Currently there are three types of commercial juice extraction devices, namely, (1) centrifugal juicers run at high speed, typically above 10,000 RPM; (2) masticating juicers; and (3) triturating juicers, both of the latter types known as slow juicers operated at relatively slow speed in the region of lower hundreds RPM. It is believed that low speed juicing processes could avoid oxidation, which could damage or destroy enzymes contained in juice, and thus it is believed that low speed juicing could preserve the nutrition and flavor of juice. Masticating juicers use a profiled screw style molding to compact and crush fruit and vegetable matters against meshes, allowing juice to flow through the meshes while filtering the fruit and vegetable solids. The current invention is directed to such masticating juicers.
Masticating juicers can be broadly classified into two major variants based on the mechanical alignment of the profiled screw. These two variants are: (1) the horizontal variant, where the profiled screw is aligned horizontally; and (2) the vertical variant, where the profiled screw is aligned vertically. The horizontal profiled screw typically is a helical screw in a cylindrical shape, whereas the vertical profiled screw is a slanted conical helix screw with an extended cutter blade at the top tip end. There is one common feature that all commercial available vertical masticating juicers exhibit: Food enters at a first position, and the extracted juice and food residue separately discharge at another second position, where the first position is higher than the second position. The two discharge points, for the juice and the residue, are generally roughly at the same elevation. The residue is often still juicy with substantial juice contents.
It is desirable to provide a juice extraction device having improved juice extraction efficiency with relatively low manufacturing complexity.